


The martyrdom of Lea Axel

by mattysones



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Roxas and Sora (Kingdom Hearts) are Siblings, Roxas and Ventus (Kingdom Hearts) are Siblings, Sora and Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts) are Siblings, alternative universe, i played birth by sleep and wanted vanitas to be happy, it's just axel but his first name's lea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 00:25:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattysones/pseuds/mattysones
Summary: Axel's mother has had enough of his delinquency and sends him off to an island to work for his aunt for the summer.Nothing starting with the sentence “do you want to hold the camera” could possibly have a good outcome.





	The martyrdom of Lea Axel

**Author's Note:**

> I started this two years ago and I still like it but I'm not sure if anyone is interested? Feedback on how you feel about this silly AU is lovely.

Lea Axel was a martyr.

This wasn't the kind of beach life he was predisposed to. He was more of a "Spring Break whoop whoop" get drunk during the summer kind of guy. Quiet islander life without severe inebriation wasn't his gig. Swimming back to Traverse Town, thus the mainland, was looking more like something he would attempt except his aunt was more of a drill sergeant than the vodka-aunt kind of aunt, something he was very upset about.

That was his mother's intention, he knew. He was twenty-years-old with a long offense history that consisted mostly of petty thefts and public intoxication. He knew the jail staff back home by name. His mother was on her last nerve and needed Axel out of the house before she smothered him in his sleep, pleading temporary insanity caused by the son she loved very much but was "going nail to a wall and strangle with his own intestine."

The last straw was when he came home with two reverse-tear tattoos under each eye. "Because I'm a joker," he said to his mother while her face turned a concerning shade of purple. His only saving grace was he was going to college and doing well, but the likelihood of him actually finding a job after school was looking slimmer every year.

"I already paid off the people who work the ferry." His aunt said as soon as he arrived at her little hut. "Don't even try to leave."

So here he was there to allegedly reevaluate his life without negative influence. He tried his best to bring the negative influence, but Demyx laughed in his face, "No can do my broski," while plucking at his sitar. What kind of nerd played a sitar? "I've got important business this summer and it doesn't involve quiet, or sand in my asshole."

"Hustling under a bridge?" Axel responded morosely. They sat in their Usual Spot on abandoned milk crates, surrounded by scattered garbage. "You don't even make connections on your own."

"I joined a band." Demyx responded, not offended in the least.

Of course he fucking did. And Demyx wasn't going to extend the effort of bringing his sitar-featuring-musical-disaster-who-the-fuck-plays-a-sitar-band to Hell Island, so Axel was out of luck.

Which is how he found himself standing in a dinky grocery, trying to decide between Arizona teas. He normally would find this kind of place charming, the kind of place that smelled of Old and had the entire stock on rickety shelves because there was no backroom. But right now he was really angry that this pissant place didn't have his favorite flavor, and never would because literally no one had ever heard of the Destiny Islands. Destiny indeed. It was his destiny to die in a ditch, Arizona Tea-less.

The cashier had been staring at him for a few minutes now. His hair was dyed black, badly, with chipped nail polish, nametag reading _Vanitas._ He looked like the sort of kid who would be Axel's people in a few years, but right now was just annoying.

When the kid noticed Axel staring back, he said, "You're not from around here are you?"

Nope, and thank god for that. Maybe Axel was wrong about the kid being his eventual kind of people, because that was the kind of line more suited for delivery in a suspiciously desolate backwater town with banjos and wicker rocking chairs. Except the kid didn't have the appropriate twang, and seemed more interested in his wardrobe.

"Good job." Axel said. He turned back to the disappointing selection of Arizona Teas, "What clued you? That I brought the population to one-thousand-and-one, or my edgy mystery?"

"Your shoes." Vanitas said. He stared with bored brown eyes and nodded toward the floor, "Unless you're climbing the cliffs, you won't get far in boots. You'll probably twist your ankle on the sand."

Axel's eyebrows rose and he looked at his combat boots and skinny jeans. He wore them less because boots were cool, and more that he hadn't bought new shoes in five years. Boots lasted forever... and okay, he still thought they looked cool. Couldn't go into a moshpit without face-stomping gear; he guessed his city clothes might have given him away.

"These are what I came here with." Axel stated blandly.

"There's sandals on the wall." Vanitas nodded toward a different wall accordingly, and sure enough there was a small selection of flip flops.

The vibe this kid gave made Axel bristly, and he was about to say something snippy but the store door opened with a jingle.

"Vanitas!" Said a sickeningly cheerful voice, and damn Vanitas and Captain Happy were clones of each other. The boy bounded toward the cash register with a grin, "We just got back from Traverse. We found the game you wanted."

Vanitas' attention left Axel and looked at the cheery, brown-haired, blue-eyed clone, "Did you get two or one?"

The other boy reached into the side pocket of his shorts and victoriously slapped a game on the counter, "Two! Like you said!"

Vanitas looked at the game and raised his eyebrows, "Sora, this is Blood and Guts Delivery Three."

Sora tilted his head to look at the game, puzzling a the box in Vanitas' hands. He comically looked like a confused puppy, only outmatched by his sneakers that looked too big for his feet. The tongues of his shoes stuck out, although it looked less like a fashion statement and more that he'd really forgotten to tie them.

The bell jingled again, "Sora! You grabbed the wrong game!"

Sora's face lit, "Roxas! Did you bring it?"

Axel looked at the newcomer. His hair was so blond Axel wondered if it was bleached, swooping up for a bed-head effect that just looked like he fell asleep in his hair gel. Man, these three really looked alike but the third boy was definitely was the prettiest.

"So are you the pretty one in the boyband?" Axel blurted, sounding cool in his head but as soon as it left his _stupid stupid_ mouth, he realized why that was _stupid so very stupid_. It was too late, all three were staring at him, standing in the now officially crowded convenience store with three clones and an idiot.

"Excuse me?" Roxas said, blue eyes (very very blue) bemused but not angry. Ah yes, this was completely normal to be a complete stranger on Fuck Me Island, obviously from out-of town like a _tourist_ , ogling this very pretty boy _how old was he?_

"I uh." Axel gaped, looked around for someone to blame the comment on and finding no one, turned on his heel and marched right out of the store. The moment his face was hit by sunlight, Axel experienced complete mortification and decided to sprint back to his aunt's, only tripping on the sand twice.

 

* * *

  
It turned out that Axel’s aunt had the worst sense of humor. She found him a job for the summer, at the very ferry service he was banned from using. Manual labor was supposed to show him the value of hard work and give him a distraction from the complete, mind-numbing boredom of the island.

Why work when he could vandalize? He'd joked at his aunt. She didn't respond, but he only got half his normal dinner portion that night. Right. None of that. He was on the Drill Sergeant’s island now and she might actually throw him outside during a typhoon. He asked if she would. She had to think an awfully long time before she said 'no'.

The person training him was a kid named Riku, and they did not get along. Axel had never met such a humorless stick-in-the-mud as Riku, two years his junior and infuriatingly competent at everything.

“Do you have a boating licence?” Riku asked as he demonstrated how to tie the boat rentals to the piers. The boats knocked hollowly again the wood pier they stood on, the smell of ocean wafting from the water.

“Sure don't.” Axel responded as he didn't pay attention. He turned back from the morning view of the horizon to wink at Riku, “The only license I have is to kill, with my ridiculously good looks.”

He should have known that kind of cheese wouldn’t fly with this kid. Riku stared at him like he was watching a bad afternoon soap opera.

“Right.” Riku said flatly, and returned to his work of hauling wet lines out of the water.

He was trying to keep himself PG-rated, okay? Though, he may have ruined the rating when, upon realizing Riku was not the talkative sort, gave him a graphic account of all the girls he banged in college. “So what do you do for fun?” Axel asked, after outlining all his female encounters that happened, and a few that didn’t. Axel liked to tell a good story. He was aware of the increasingly agitated demeanor Riku was giving, but to put it simply, Axel didn’t care.

“Mind my own business.” Riku snapped, the most reaction he’d displayed thus far. “It’s a lot of fun. Doesn’t involve detailing all of my sexual encounters because it’s none of _anyone’s concern._ ”

Wow, Axel thought. The last time he had that negative a reaction was when he asked his buddy Xigbar what he used all those very illegal gun modifications for (There was a 95% chance Xigbar had actually killed a man with a spoon. Probably two men. Definitely two). Xigbar told him to go fuck himself. In much more colorful language.

Riku talked as he worked, “If you don’t have a license you won’t be able to run the ferry. You’ll probably be at the desk until then. Might be for the best.”

Axel looked up curiously, carefully coiling the lines like Riku showed him while the sun beat his shoulders. He was wearing a black band tee, which was a great mistake, he was quickly learning.

“Ms. Axel told me about you.” Riku said matter-of-factly, voice not fluctuating with judgement, amusement, or anything that Axel might be able to gauge him with. “She doesn’t really want you in Traverse. She thinks you'll run.”

Axel huffed, cringing when his hand slipped on seaweed. “That's the Drill Sergeant for you. Strike preemptively. Crush the rebelliousness right out of ya.”

Riku frowned and paused, leaning heavily on lines to turn and look Axel in the face. His voice still didn't fluctuate. “She just doesn't deal with any bullshit.”

Axel knew when to stop pressing buttons, and they worked mostly in silence.

“Oh, Riku?” His aunt said pleasantly over dinner, “Such a good boy. He helps me with the roof work I can’t do alone.”

It would figure she got along with that prig.

Though, Axel might have understood later why Riku spoke up. After a passing complaint that his clothes were too heavy and hot for the island, he returned from Work Day Two to find a few shopping bags on the spare bed filled with shorts, t-shirts and a few flip flops.

He never thanked her, but wore the clothes without complaint, even though her sense of humor showed again. She managed to find nothing but neon-colored shorts and Hawaiian-print patterns.

Work Day Three had him sitting at the ferry’s partially outdoor desk alone, dressed in a pineapple-print shirt and neon pink flip flops. Apparently they were only early afternoon workers and the owner, Cid, was currently on the other side of the water to take care of rental maintenance. This left Riku the sole captain of USS Drowning Hazard and Axel on the desk, waiting for Riku to return with the ferry.

The ferry ran regularly despite the minimal tourists, and also had rentals despite minimal customers. Most of the island natives had their own water-faring vehicles. Axel spent a fair amount of time napping, and more time sticking his phone out his window. He could text, but there was no Internet signal for his phone. He was truly a living tragedy.

So involved in trying to find a signal to the outside world (Any signal. After complete technological separation, you’d truly think his home city was The World That Never Was. More like the Signal That Never Was. Too much interference at home, and no modern amenities on Misery Island) Axel didn’t notice he had customers, until snickering reached his ears while he was doing a fairly good job twisting on his little desk without falling.

He was treated to an upside down view of the Actual Angel from before, this time with less checkered patterns and more beachwear. Wait, those were checkered-patterned flip flops. Impressive. Sora was standing next to him dressed in a black wetsuit, which was also Impressive.

“Welcome to Cid Rentals.” Axel drawled, not bothering to sit right-side up, “The ferry won’t be back for another hour. How can I help you?”

Roxas smirked down at him and Sora grinned, “You won’t get a signal out here,” Sora said, “It’s pretty barren.”

“As long as the natives are aware of your boondocks status.” Axel sat upright, wavering with a headrush.

Roxas and Sora spoke simultaneously, “Believe us, we know.”

Axel recoiled, a little surprised at the tandem.

Without missing a beat, Roxas reached into his swim shorts pocket and pulled out a wallet, “We want to rent a boat,” he slapped the wallet on the desk, “and water skis.”

Axel regarded the wallet, “Do you have a license?” Because he wasn't going to get fired for something stupid. He'd rather get fired for a much better reason.

“Of course.” Roxas started shuffling through the billfold, “There’s nothing else to do around here, why wouldn’t we?” Roxas paused in his flipping, “Aren’t you the guy who tried to hit on me at the store?”

“How come he’s the only one in a wetsuit?” Axel nodded toward Sora. He was good at dodging. Dodging was a honed skill. He was a pro. He ignored Roxas’ squinted eyes.

Sora bounced on his bare feet, giddy. The kid must have leather for feet (normal-sized feet, Axel noticed), because the wooden docks were hot from the sun. “We have plans,” he grinned. “Grand plans.”

“Oh no.” Axel said with zero indication of actually being upset, “That sounds concerning.”

Roxas grinned in a way that could only be described as devious. He handed Axel his license (It read “Roxas Keeper”. Eighteen-years-old. Score.), “Do you want to hold the camera? You’re not doing anything anyway.”

Nothing starting with the sentence “do you want to hold the camera” could possibly have a good outcome. Axel was delighted.

“Fuck yeah.” Axel started gathering the disclaimer paperwork, “Hold on, fill this out.”

After the paperwork was done, Roxas retrieved the camcorder from a backpack and showed Axel how to use it. “Here’s how you zoom.” Roxas poked at the buttons. Axel could barely see the digital screen in the bright sunlight, but he wasn't really listening anyway. “And don’t drop it in the water!”

“Never.” Axel said, looking at the blond disaster on Roxas’ head, “Are you going to let me in on what you’re doing?”

“Nah.” Roxas smirked up at him, “This is for shock value.”

A normal person might have expressed concerns when Sora stuck his hand into the ski boot and started duct-taping his forearm to the rentals. Axel mostly wondered if he was going to have to explain how the skis got sticky, but right now he was recording the moment Sora realized he should have climbed into the boat first, then taped his hands. As it was, watching two people trying to clamber into a boat with five-foot long, heavy sticks taped to their hands was pretty hilarious.

“I hope you’re not recording this part!” Sora yelled while Roxas helped him balance.

“Of course not.” Axel lied.

Roxas looked from the end of the dock to Axel sitting, clearly recording. He gave Axel an approving thumbs up.

Axel's heart made a happy little flutter seeing this blue-eyed boy so visibly pleased.

 _Stop that, heart._ Axel scolded himself. _You're only here for the summer, and you're not these people's people._

So spaced out he didn't notice he was recording the dock until Roxas was revving the boat engine and pulling out. A lot of things happened in the next ten minutes.

One: Axel noticed the ferry becoming visible on the horizon.

Two: Axel saw the boat rental putter to a stop in the middle of the reef of while Roxas and Sora figured out how to put Sora in the water, attached to the water skis.

Three: Everything happening was a very bad idea, mostly because this island of the Destiny Island chain was surrounded by a fringing reef, which meant the water was shallow.

Lea Axel was a matyre.

He experienced a moment of hesitation, something in the back of his mind saying he should probably call the two boys back, but there was a bigger voice yelling that he wanted to see Sora fail so hard. Axel would sacrifice the niggling feeling for the sake of this video being _great._

Roxas was in the middle of speeding up with Sora behind him, the line from the boat tied around Sora’s waist. Sora was impressively staying balanced on the skis with his forearms.

They hadn’t thought about how the line was going to interfere with where Sora’s legs would go when he tried to do a handstand (Forearm stand?). Axel made sure to zoom in, so he could commemorate the moment Sora flipped and plummeted into the water.

* * *

“Well,” Axel said, watching the ambulance pull away, “At least he’s okay.”

Roxas nodded with a vaguely worried expression, but he didn’t seem particularly upset, “He’s had more broken before. He’ll be fine.”

Axel thought the dopey grin on Sora's bleeding face and his excited, “I thought I was going to die!” Was more of an indicator of his okay-ness, but whatever. “Your poor mother.” Axel said instead.

Roxas laughed.

Riku appeared behind them, a hand heavy on Roxas’ shoulder, still holding the phone he’d called the ambulance with. “Roxas.” He said softly, forcefully, anger apparent. Oh, that would be scary if Axel was the one being yelled at. “What if he had hit the coral?”

Roxas’ eyes shifted away, “Sorry.”

Riku sighed, pocketing his phone while worry lined his face, “I called your mom. I'm sure she's not suing. Again.”

“Thanks dude. Ever the mature one,” Roxas said sheepishly.

Axel looked down at Roxas, “Do you need help walking back your bikes? Since there’s two of them and one of you.”

Roxas started to respond but Riku turned to Axel and smiled. A shock of fear made Axel stiffen. Riku didn’t smile. Riku skulked and stared into the distance like a emo band cover lead. He didn't smile. “Lea.” He said pleasantly, “Would you help me finish securing the boat?”

Axel followed, scurrying around as Riku quietly gave him orders and Roxas tied one of the bikes to the dock to walk one bike and everything else back home.

Axel had worked up a sweat by the time they got to actually securing the boat. Riku had his back turned as he worked, and Axel couldn’t help but be impressed by the sheer strength this kid had. “Look.” Riku said, grunting quietly. “You couldn't have known because you're new, but never let the twins rent stuff alone.”

Axel's eyebrows raised as he kept the lines from tangling. Twins?

“But I'll tell you something.” Riku continued, shoulders heaving with effort; there was something sharp in his voice, “Because I know caring isn’t your thing.” Axel frowned. ”I _do_ care.” Riku said, “Sora is someone very precious to me.”

Gay. Axel thought, shaking out the lines.

Riku finished tightening lines and dropped the heavy fibers with a wet thump, turning around. Axel froze.

“If I ever find out you purposely put Sora in harm's way,” Riku smiled, “I will not hesitate to cut out your liver and eat it for dinner. I will make sure the last thing you see is your beating heart as I rip it out of your chest.” Riku stared right back into Axel’s startled eyes, voice tense but ever non-fluctuating. Riku didn’t yell. “I know these islands by heart,” He said, “And no one will ever, ever find your body.” He walked close and clapped Axel's shoulder, “Are we on the same page, buddy?”

Axel had dealt with a lot of people. In his experience, there were people who whined but did nothing, people who made empty threats, and people who could make threats and follow through.

Riku could absolutely follow through.

Axel grinned and saluted. “I understand Captain! Sora is off limits!”

Luckily Sora wasn’t the twin he was interested in.

“And Roxas too.”

Oh.

“I’m glad we understand each other.” Riku fell back into his normal neutral expression, tilting his head thoughtfully, “You can go home. Shift change should be soon. I have an incident report to write.”

“Aye-aye!” Axel jogged, flip flops slapping as he tried to catch up to Roxas. No such luck, but he had a feeling a dour goth kid at a convenience store would know where Roxas might have wandered to.


End file.
